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METROPOLITAN LIFE. Corrupting Influences

of a

Patience and resignation follow and reside with a

contented heart; every crowding care flies away on the

wings of gaiety; and on every side agreeable and interesting scenes present themselves to our view: the brilliant sun sinking behind the lofty mountains, tinging their snow-crowned turrets with golden rays; the feathered choir hastening to seek within their mossy cells, a soft, a silent, and a secure repose; the shrill crowing of the amorous cock; the solemn and stately march of oxen returning from their daily toil; and the graceful paces of the generous steed. But, amidst the pleasures of a great metropolis, where sense and truth are constantly despised, and integrity and consciences thrown aside as inconvenient and oppressive, the fairest forms of fancy are obscured, and the purest virtues of the heart corrupted.

Solitude, Cap. II.-J. G. ZIMMERMAN.

MIDNIGHT.

Season of general rest, whose solemn still
Strikes to the trembling heart a fearful chill.

But speaks to philosophic souls delight,
Thee do I hail, as, at my casement high,
My candle waning melancholy by,

I sit and taste the holy calm of night.

Ode to Midnight.-H. K. WHite.

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Mind is the brightness of the body-lights it,
When years its proper but less subtle fire
Begins to dim.

The Wife, Act III. Scene III.-J. S. KNOWLES.

'Tis well that man to all the varying states
Of good and ill his mind accommodates ;
He not alone progressive grief sustains,
But soon submits to unexperienced pains.

The Borough, Letter XXIII.-G. CRABBE.

MIND. Lowliness of

Oh! I would walk

A weary journey to the farthest verge

Of the big world, to kiss that good man's hand,
Who, in the blaze of wisdom and of art,

Preserves a lowly mind; and to his God,
Feeling the sense of his own littleness,
Is as a child in meek simplicity!

What is the pomp of learning,-the parade

Of letters and of tongues?

Even as the mists

Of the gray morn before the rising sun,

That pass away and perish.

Time: A Poem.-H. K. WHITE.

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The defects of the mind, like those of the face,

grow worse as we grow old.

Maxims, CCCCLXI.-ROCHEFoucault.

MIND. No Cure in Nature for a Disordered

Nature, too unkind,

That made no medicine for a troubled mind!
Philaster, Act III.-BEAUMONT and FLETcher.

MINDS. Vulgar

The wings on which my soul
Is mounted, have long since borne her too high
To stoop to any prey that soars not upwards.
Sordid and dunghill minds, composed of earth,
In that gross element fix all their happiness ;
But purer spirits, purged and refined, shake off
That clog of human frailty.

The Elder Brother, Act I. Scene II.
JOHN FLETCHER.

MINERALS and PLANTS.

I read in a learned physician how our provident mother, Nature, foreseeing men (her wanton children) would be tampering with the edgetools of minerals, hid them far from them, in the bowels of the earth, whereas she exposed plants and herbs more obvious to the eye as fitter for their use. But some bold empirics, neglecting the latter as too common, have adventured on those

hidden minerals, ofttimes (through want of skill) to the

hurt of many and hazard of more.

Occasional Meditations, XV.-THOMAS FULLER.

MIRACLES. Ancient and Modern

They say, miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons, to make modern and familiar things supernatural and causeless. Hence it is that we make trifles of terrors; ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear.

All's Well that Ends Well, Act II. Scene III.
SHAKSPERE.

MIRTH. Wicked

Wicked mirth never true pleasure brings,
But honest minds are pleased with honest things.
The Knight of the Burning Castle, Prologue.
BEAUMONT and FLETCHER.

MISERS.

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Some, o'er-enamour'd of their bags, run mad,
Groan under gold, yet weep for want of bread.
Night Thoughts, v. Line 992.-EDWARD YOUNG.

MISERS. Description of Genuine

Misers are generally characterised as men without honour or without humanity, who live only to accumulate, and to this passion sacrifice every other happiness. They have been described as madmen, who, in the

midst of abundance, banish every pleasure, and make from imaginary wants real necessities.

But few, very

few, correspond to this exaggerated picture; and perhaps there is not one in whom all these circumstances are united. Instead of this, we find the sober and industrious branded by the vain and the idle with this odious appellation-men who, by frugality and labour, raise themselves above their equals, and contribute their share of industry to the common stock.

The Bee, No. III.-GOLDSMITH.

MISERS devour Poor People.

I can compare our rich misers to nothing so fitly as to a whale; 'a plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful. Pericles, Act II. Scene I.-SHAKSPERE.

MISERY. The Depth of

Me miserable!-which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;
And in the lowest deep a lower deep
Still threatening to devour me opens wide;
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.

Paradise Lost, Book IV. Line 73.-JOHN MILTON.

MISFORTUNE, alleviated by Pity.

The misfortunes of the great, my friend, are held up to engage our attention, are enlarged upon in tones

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